A 16-year-old worker's legs were broken less than two hours into his first day at work as he fell from the footplate of an 18-ton refuse lorry. He was riding on the outside of the vehicle because there was not enough room in the cab for him and the three other workers. A 17 year-old girl lost part of a finger only one hour of starting her holiday job. Her fingers were crushed in a machine at the bakery where she worked.
Figures from the UK Health and Safety Executive show that Men in the 20-24 age group suffer the second highest total incidence of non-fatal work place accidents. Women in the same age group are the fifth most vulnerable group.
Accidents like these are a daily occurrence and a serious threat to EU's 58 million young people. According to Eurostat data, the risk of work accidents is at least 50% higher among those aged 18-24 years than in any other age category. Accidents and damage to the health of young workers are particularly distressing where the young person has to live with the consequences for the rest of their lives. Worse still is the premature death of a youngster from a usually avoidable work accident.
"Young persons are less likely to recognize the risk of accidents and even when they do, they may be less able to take appropriate action. And sometimes they are simply assigned to tasks beyond their capabilities or are not provided adequate training or supervision", explains Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. "We must take steps to ensure young people have a safe and healthy start to their working lives, and to promote risk awareness and risk prevention in enterprises, schools and colleges."
In anticipation of the campaign that will run next year, the European Agency has just launched an online pool of information on issues related to young people and their safety and health. Topics covered include accident prevention and integrating occupational safety and health into education.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
